K2 Telephone Kiosk Outside Carfax Tower is a Grade II listed building in the Oxford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 3 July 2009. Telephone kiosk.
K2 Telephone Kiosk Outside Carfax Tower
- WRENN ID
- winding-pillar-ash
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Oxford
- Constituency
- Oxford West and Abingdon MP: Layla Moran (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 3 July 2009
- Type
- Telephone kiosk
- Address
- K2 Telephone Kiosk Outside Carfax Tower, Queen Street, OX1 1ET
- OS grid reference
- SP 513 061
- Coordinates
- 51.752, -1.25809
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The K2 telephone kiosk, located outside Carfax Tower in Oxford, was built around 1927 and designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. This kiosk is made of cast iron and painted red, featuring a neo-classical design with Soanian segmental vaulted roofs and multi-pane glazing that resembles a Georgian sash window. The glazing is surrounded by reeded strips and classical paterae. It also has a perforated crown, which is the symbol of the General Post Office, positioned within the upper faces of the canopy above a glazed panel that displays the word 'TELEPHONE'.
The kiosk is situated outside a 12th-century tower, which is the only remaining part of the Church of St Martin, Carfax. This church was demolished in 1896 to widen the road, and the K2 kiosk now stands where the church's nave once was. The location is marked as 'T.C.B.' (telephone call box) on the 1939 Ordnance Survey map, indicating that there was originally a kiosk here. The current K2 is one of four installed in this area in 1994 following a bequest from Nicholas Medley.
The K2 telephone kiosk is recognized for its artistic and functional design, as well as its iconic status as a significant example of 20th-century industrial design. It also has group value with the 12th-century tower of the former Church of St Martin, Carfax.
Local climate
K2 Telephone Kiosk Outside Carfax Tower sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 50% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2026
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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